BETWEEN MUSSOORI AND GANGAOTRI IN MAY 1874. 225 



Wherever the traveller goes, he will see whole hill sides that 

 have had their pines cut down, and instead of the most lovely 

 of trees, to those who are fond of Alpiue scenery, little else is 

 to be seen but hill sides studded with stumps of tree trunks, 

 and here and there a miserable surviving pine. On one hill 

 side beyond Derali the clearance is complete. A good part 

 of the timber appears to have been removed from the spot 

 where it was felled, but perhaps a greater part is found either 

 in the shape of half rotten or wholly rotten prostrate trunks, 

 or else in the shape of short logs which stud the river bed from 

 end to end. 



Many of these latter appear to be stranded beyond the reach 

 of ordinary floods, and there they remain rotting away, until 

 an extraordinary flood comes which will move them. Such 

 wanton and wholesale destruction of the timber of a fine valley 

 is not to be met with any where else upon the face of the earth, 

 I believe. As a natural result, birds have become scarce, and 

 had I known the exact condition of the valley, I should never 

 have dreamt of taking an ornithological trip in that direction, 

 and nothing would tempt me to go again. 



High up on a hill side, a huge pine will be found, cut down 

 and rotting away, for which there are no existing means what- 

 soever of transport to the rivei". I found numbers of such 

 trees in various stages of decomposition, and some too rotten 

 even for removal as fire-wood. 



This is the sort of destruction to be regretted, for the valley 

 will never again be the lovely place it once was. The age of 

 fine timber growth is a by-gone one, and in this utilitarian 

 one, even the smallest sapling is removed for some imaginary 

 purpose. 



The natives of the valley have also caused much destruction 

 to timber by the pernicious practice of lighting fires at the 

 foot of a tree for cooking or other purposes. By a succession 

 of fires the fine tree becomes quite hollowed out, and at last 

 it falls, in some cases across the Bhagiruttee valley road, so 

 that travelling there is by no means safe. 



The tree is frequently used as a fire place before vegetation 

 ceases. I saw many putting out leaves still, that had only a 

 hollow shell of a trunk at the base. 



With this explanation regarding the want of wood, my 

 very meagre list of birds met with will be understood. 



The country is, moreover, not a good one for collecting birds. 

 Springs of water are much scarcer than in Cashmere, and the 

 river as a rule runs in a narrow gorge among rocks, a furiously 

 foaming rapid torrent from which it is difficult for even a bird 

 to obtain a drink. 



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